Paes-Bhupathi to meet Woodies in second round

US Open champion Marat Safin was seeded
first in the draw for the Olympic tennis tournament, while American
duo Lindsay Davenport and Venus Williams topped the women's seedings.

Australian Open champion Davenport, who fell to Williams in
the US Open final, launches her Olympic gold medal defence
against Paola Suarez of Argentina.

Second-seed Williams, who also won at Wimbledon, carries a
26-match winning streak to Sydney where she will be tested
first by Henrieta Nagyova of Slovakia.

Russia's Safin, coming off a straight-sets demolition of
Pete Sampras in the US Open final, begins the tournament
against France's Fabrice Santoro in a quarter of the draw that
could match him against Briton Tim Henman, seeded seventh, in
the quarter-finals.

The formidable Australian men's contingent of Lleyton
Hewitt, Patrick Rafter and Mark Philippoussis, meanwhile, were
spread out in different sections of the draw, with
fourth-seeded Hewitt and 11th seed Philippoussis facing serious
first-round threats.

Hewitt, who won this year's Sydney international on the
same Olympic Park courts, drew the dangerous, and most
familiar, Max Mirnyi of Belarus. The 19-year-old Hewitt teamed
up with Mirnyi to win the men's doubles crown at the US Open.

Philippoussis plays US Open quarter-finalist Thomas
Johansson of Sweden, while two-time US champion Rafter appears
to have won an easy passage into the second round of the
64-player event by drawing American Vince Spadea, winner of
only two matches all year.

Other intriguing match-ups in Hewitt's quarter of the draw
see sixth seed Alex Corretja of Spain play the explosive Goran
Ivanisevic of Croatia, while Briton Greg Rusedski faces
France's Arnaud Clement in a duel of two of the more dangerous
unseeded players.

Australian hope Jelena Dokic, whose erratically-behaved
father Damir will be closely monitored at the games, drew a
first-round match against 14th seed Ai Sugiyama of Japan. The
winner could face Davenport in the third round.

The doubles draw produced two interesting scenarios.

Top-seeded Australians Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde,
the famed ''Woodies'', drew a first-round bye in the men's event,
but the defending champions could face a stern test in the
second round in Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes.

The Indians, who were in all four Grand Slam finals in 1999 and won the French and Wimbledon titles, play Romanians Andrei
Pavel and Gabriel Trifu in their opener.

Women's top seeds Julie Halard-Decugis and Sandrine Testud
of France were also given a bye but could run into the
impressive Williams sisters in the quarters.

Venus and Serena, the Wimbledon champions, play Xanadians
Sonya Jeyaseelan and Vanessa Webb in the first round.